Stores soon restocked with popular weather book

A colleague of mine mentioned this morning that he inquired about a University of Washington professor’s book at Barnes and Noble, only to be told the store can’t keep it on the shelves.

The professor is Cliff Mass, and the book is “The Weather of the Pacific Northwest.” Mass, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the UW, has emerged as one of the Seattle area’s best known weather wonks — and his 2008 book is proving popular.

The P-I’s John Marshall interviewed Mass about his book’s success last month, reporting that it’s awfully hard to find in stores lately:

Snow shovels have been hard to find during December, as have been generators, tire chains and other bad-weather equipment. Also in short supply has been a best-selling new book that explains exactly why the weather around here turns so nasty and is so difficult to forecast.

Mass told fans of the book yesterday that relief is on the way. On his blog, the UW professor wrote that a second print run is hitting stores, and that his publisher will print another 5,000-10,000 copies this month:

“Local bookstores should be restocked this week… I really apologize to those who had problems getting the book. Things should get better now.”

Though the weather novices among us might be surprised at the book’s booming popularity, Mass isn’t. Here’s what Mass told the P-I last month:

“There are an amazing number of weather fanatics in the Northwest,” Mass said. “I’ve been interacting with these people for years — if I give a weather talk at Kane Hall, I fill all 700 seats. So I knew this group of weather fanatics, and I wrote the book for them. It’s written at a layman’s level, but also with enough complexity for a meteorologist to get something out of it.”